The City of Waterloo paid nearly $300,000 in salary and benefits to councillors in 2013, plus another $22,865 for conferences, $20,333 for meetings and events and $19,433 for technology and home office expenses.

According to documents released late last month by the city, Mayor Brenda Halloran topped the list in 2013 with $83,642.08 for earnings and benefits, councillors Melissa Durrell, Diane Freeman, Jeff Henry, Karen Scian and Angela Vieth accounted for $31,993.69 each, Coun. Scott Witmer received $28,443.97 and Coun. Mark Whaley received $26,542.33.

The mayor collected another $790.21 for memberships and $1,240.30 for conferences in Ottawa and Germany last year.

Almost every councillor was reimbursed for attending a range of conferences last year, including Freeman ($6,371.86 for five conferences, including four Association of Municipalities of Ontario meetings), Henry ($3,029.92), Scian ($3,452.90), Vieth ($3,908.17), Whaley ($4,496.03) and Durrell ($365.85).

Witmer did not make any claims for conferences or seminars in 2013.

The mayor claimed another $8,884.12 for trips related to economic development, including more than $4,400 for the trade mission to Germany, Belgium and Holland with Canada’s Technology Triangle and mayors Doug Craig of Cambridge and Carl Zehr of Kitchener.

Whaley claimed nearly $6,900 for economic development, including trips to New York City ($2,334.07 in June) and Italy ($2,884.72 in October for a global forum to discuss business and policy issues).

Halloran ($9,099.96) and Scian ($9,799.96) also collected earnings related to their work on the board of Waterloo North Hydro.

The full report is available on the city’s website.

The city also had 66 employees on the provincial sunshine list, which includes names, positions, salaries and total taxable benefits of employees paid $100,000 or more in a calendar year. It’s a slight increase over 2012, when 63 City of Waterloo employees were on the sunshine list.

Chief Administrative Officer Tim Anderson earned the most in 2013, $188,358.61 plus $8,630.04 in benefits — an increase over the $178,120.21 salary and $8,253.14 in benefits he earned in 2012.

The complete sunshine list is now available online, www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/publications/salarydisclosure/pssd/.